Okay, it took me a while to come back down to earth after the double-whammy of having Leo released on the same day as David Archuleta’s epic FB live… I’m not there yet, but I knowwwww… (sorry, couldn’t resist 🙂 ) … seriously though, David, ARE YOU TRYING TO KEEEEL US??!!

Many cold compresses and smelling salts later, here I am to give you my stream-of-consciousness impressions of the whole thing.

First of all, let me say how impressed I was that David not only took the time to organize a professional, recording studio set-up for the whole thing, so the songs would “sound good”… boy, did they ever! … but he also coordinated his outfit to match his avi… THAT is commitment to your craft, my friends.

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David’s done other FB Lives but what I loved most about this one was how relaxed he seemed… maybe having a structure to it, with songs and pre-organized questions, and a “cohost” and interns to share it with, helped. Or the elation of getting instant positive (well-deserved) feedback from the amazingness that is Leo.

No idea, but whatever it was, it made for a full hour of all that we love most about David. His talent, yes, of course, but also his authenticity, his courage to be vulnerable, his quirky sense of humour and something else… a mercurial essence none of us can ever quite put our finger on that makes him endlessly fascinating. Go ahead, disagree with me, I just saw Wonder Woman so I’m feeling feisty. 🙂

Random impressions, in no particular order:

**His Nashville accent struck my hubs when he walked in and caught a few minutes… “What’s with the accent??” he asked. “Is he doing country music now?” Oh, honey.

**Loved the way David made a point of including as many names of peeps who asked questions as possible (AND THAT I KNEW A LOT OF THOSE LOVELY PEOPLE!!!) … even grouping together the names of those who asked similar questions… how thoughtful is that? I don’t watch anyone else’s FB Lives, but I doubt anyone else takes that time or trouble.

**Also loved his explanation for choosing “Leo” and constellations: “There’s something about the stars that makes me feel small, but also that I belong in this huge universe, so I wanted people to get that cool feeling.”

**How talking about staying cool like a lion lead to a finger-snapping snippet from one of my favourite musicals ever, West Side Story… “stay cool, boy”

**And the way he started tapping out the beat for Someone to Love before Brady even started strumming… BECAUSE HE IS DAVID “MUSICAL GENIUS” ARCHULETA!

**’Twas awesome to hear him talk about being fine with writing radio-friendly songs at some point (although, hello, would not today’s radio be 100% improved by hearing Other Things in Sight on it???) … “It’s about being myself… I’ll be happy to try and write some good radio songs in the future but I wanted a project where I could just show who I am to all of you.” (Was I the only one screaming “YOU GO, DAVID!!!!” at my screen? Sure. Okay.)

**Then he launched into OTIS. Oh. Em. Gee. Groovy chair-dancing David takes over. I know lots of you love this song and I am right there with you, my people. It. Rocks. In a soulful, funkalicious groovy Tuesday kind of way…

**Kind of taken a back, tbh, at how he was so open about this being his “rebellious” song… but not a “NO WAY, I’M GOING TO THROW THIS CHAIR AT YOU!” song… yes, those were his exact words, I checked. 🙂 (Shades of Josh Bradley versus Uncle Stevil there, right?!)

**When he said “For a good chunk of my life I felt like I was [longest pause in the history of pauses]… controlled” … I may have gasped at that moment.

He went on to explain, “This song’s saying, ‘You know what, I’m an adult now, sooooo … I’m not saying, ‘In yo’ face!’ to anybody… just give me the space I need.” Lesson learned: Give some space to The Archuleta.

**When he sat down at the piano for “I’m Ready,” I couldn’t help but think back to this:

For real, though… sitting down at a grand piano performing heartfelt singer-songwriter tunes but now they are HIS songs, from HIS heart. (brb, have a branch in my eye)

**I didn’t follow along with all the live comments until I watched it a second time (needed to focus, y’all)… but there are some hiLARious ones… like this one from a young guy: “I’m torn between doing my laundry and watching this and yet I’m here.” 🙂 🙂 🙂 … and “Can you sing, ‘My Hands’?” 🙂 🙂 🙂 And possibly my favourite: “Can you surprise my friend at her wedding?” hahaha… how? by being the groom? *DEAD*

Who else?:
(a) Clapped after every song
(b) Pictured him nodding off during a song-writing session (cowriters, pics please, or it didn’t happen)

**Loved his answer to the lovely @pastelpastel‘s question that mentioned Adele’s approach to writing albums, not singles… “I want to give birth naturally to these kids here” 🙂 “If you try to make a song a hit it takes away the emotion, takes away the place where the song comes from.” PREACH, DAVID!!! 🙌🏼🙌🏼🙌🏼

**It warmed my heart how intently David looked at his phone to make sure he included as many questions as possible, and to read out people’s names. Who does that?? David, that’s who.

**When I watched it through again, I noticed David kind of chuckled before he read out my question. My question was asking if, in I’m Ready, the lines after the bridge were improvised… I also asked how he made it sound so cool. I’m thinking he chuckled at that last part because he didn’t read it out, lol. Loved his explanation though, that it was improvised (SUPER cool!) and that it was a line of Annie Schmidt’s and another way to pay tribute to her. Beautiful.

**Loved the acoustic versions of all the songs (‘natch)… but especially Spotlight Down, I think… how softly he sings the beginning, and how his voice wavers in parts of it… obvs. strikes very close to home and you could really feel that.

**I had to laugh at him getting “permission” to show us the cover of the new album… is he not the boss of him? lol And also, lol @ his face worrying his “personal” photos might be revealed… 17380974619384738436 shots of his lunch?? 🌽🍳🌮🍜🌯🍔🍗😂

**So much good news he shared!!!! Philippines & Asia trip!!! Videoooooos!!!! More tour dates to come!!! Album release date Oct. 20!!!! CANADAAAA!!!! (Sure, it’s two giant provinces over and further than Utah from here, BUT STILL!!!!)

**My absolutely favourite part was how happy he was at the end:

It feels better than I’ve ever felt in the history of my music life to see the positive response [to Leo songs]… because they’re ME… to see that you guys connect to it is so cool.

How about you guys??? What was your favourite part???

Watch again here:

p.s.
It’s SnowAngelz’ Birthday, you guys!
Where on earth does the time go??

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43 Responses to Reliving the @DavidArchie FB Live magic

Happy Birthday SnowAngelz!! Another awesomely funny entry! My favorite-all that singing of course! I was so grateful that D and his team did this. It was really like a listening party that I was so jealous of in Orange Lounge.

Happy Birthday, SnowAngelz!!! Of course the singing was my favorite part of the FB Live, but I have to give a huge high five to the part when he was at the piano checking his posture!! ROFL!!! It still makes me laugh out loud! 😀

I had a smile on my face the whole time. I loved the singing of course, but David being David is the bees knees for me. I’m so happy for him that he has found his own voice and the bonus for us is we get to enjoy all that talent and Davidness ( is that a word?). Also wanted to say that Snowangelz and Tofan are the bees knees of websites also.

I agree, Snowangelz and TOfan are the bees knees of websites. Happy Birthday Snowangelz! Thanks for being here all these years.
Oh the Facebook Live, love your tremendous recap TOfan. So much goodness in it all and the music was fabulous as was David being David….his honesty, his sensitivity, his natural humour, loved it all. I was also so impressed how thoughtful he was to make sure he included people’s names with the many questions and covered as many as he could.
He gave us great acoustic music, lots of responses to lots of questions, shared his heart and himself in so many ways, brought us great news about music, shows and made me smile a lot, laugh and enjoy that full hour which seemed to go by quickly. Love this too:
“My absolutely favourite part was how happy he was at the end:
It feels better than I’ve ever felt in the history of my music life to see the positive response [to Leo songs]… because they’re ME… to see that you guys connect to it is so cool.”
A big YES to that.

I kind of relate OTIS to his early song, Don’t Tell Me… listen to it. The boy has had a little rebel in him for a long time. (and OTIS, as in Otis Redding? Coincidence? I think not)
I also thought of Josh Bradley when he made the chair comment. And when he did the posture check, I swear I could hear the screaming of thousands of girls (*cough*middle-aged women*cough*) through my computer! ha ha

Thanks for this fabulous recap of David’s Facebook live! I especially liked this paragraph – “It made for a full hour of all that we love most about David. His talent, yes, of course, but also his authenticity, his courage to be vulnerable, his quirky sense of humour and something else… a mercurial essence none of us can ever quite put our finger on that makes him endlessly fascinating.” Also, happy birthday Snowangelz. This site has been so much fun. Always a bright spot in my day when a new post pops up.

Happy birthday to SnowAngelz! May this blog ever be the home for inspired commentary on things Davidly. And how to warm my heart even more than a birthday celebration? With memories of the greatest Facebook Live imaginable. So endearingly David and then he sings and his voice causes me to gasp and heck yeah, I clapped after every song. That posture thing made me grin wildly as I’ve always considered the D to be the paramount paragon of postural perfection. Things just keep getting better, my Archufriends.

Happy anniversary SAz!!!!
Can it really be that long ago?!!!
Love every post and this one is no exception!!!
Gosh I adored the FB LIVE but have only watched it once!!! That dang real life getting in the way!! Def going to do a rewatch… I loved seeing how happy and comfy he seems , as he should cause these songs are the BOMB!!! Love love love Orion and Leo!!!

Happy Birthday girl! Hope your day was blessed! I can’t think of one think that stands out in the FB live because I loved all of it. I was pretty happy for the Filipino fans and his announcement he’d be going there by the end of the year. I like his ever goofy ways about him, his smile, his laugh, how he checked his posture at the piano etc. I’m loving Leo and Orion and can’t wait for “Postcards from the Sky” and even more music. I’m not going to any of his concerts coming up (listed…so far) so I’ll live vicariously through fan videos and Periscope.

Wow 8 years!? Happy Birthday SnowAngelz!!! Time flies when you are having fun indeed! I couldn’t agree more about “…a mercurial essence none of us can ever quite put our finger on that makes him endlessly fascinating” yes yes so true! And on FB Live which I watched “unlive,” I bust out laughing at his “I’M GOING TO THROW THIS CHAIR AT YOU!” description of what’s aggressive which Leo/lion isn’t LOL. I wish I had asked some questions, sigh, but life was/is just too busy sometimes. Thank you Deb for your amazing and endless creativity and humor ❤

Happy Birthday to SnowAngelz! Wishing you many more!
This recap… So good I had to immediately read it again. Enjoying and appreciating all the comments too.
I hear you on the double-whammy impact of that Friday. I had LEO going non-stop for hours and then made sure I was seated early for David’s Facebook live concert that night. It was a gigantic buffet of a day. Dessert only.
I loved how David was so excited to share. You could almost hear him saying, “Y’all come on over to my place and we’ll listen to some music.” He was not only comfortable with that concept, he was noticeably more comfortable with himself.
“A mercurial essence” for sure. #blessedtobeafan

Yes, really happy for the Filipino fans and great promo for sure! Think they might be just a little excited that David is returning to perform! He’ll be there on his album release day too. Ha, great videos to watch again, those days past when he was there doing all kinds of wonderful things left us some great memories, lots of fun.
So that’s one international show announced….should be more coming soon I hope. 🙂

Happy Belated Birthday TOfan! I have enjoyed this site for all of those ‘8’ years! (Really? 8 yrs.?)
I laughed, cried, clapped, danced and giggled much during this FB live! Mostly I was super proud to be Davids fan! He just has “IT”! All of “IT”!